""We get questions all the time about, 'Can you help me with my patent?' But we couldn't until we got certification," said Elizabeth Townsend Gard, a Tulane Law School faculty member and co-director of the Tulane Center for IP, Media & Culture.

Townsend Gard said in each of the past three years, her intellectual property class has done about 100 trademark searches for people.

"We really recognize that there is a need in the city, that there aren't a lot of places for people to turn to get pro bono patent and trademark help …. That's why we wanted to do both," she said."